Christian Horner defends Max Verstappen and compares him to Lewis Hamilton: “He’s more sensitive than people think”. Christian Horner defended Max Verstappen following yet another criticism from Jacques Villeneuve.

Christian Horner stepped in to defend Max Verstappen after Jacques Villeneuve claimed that “no one would care” if the Dutchman no longer raced. According to the Red Bull team principal, the four-time world champion is, in reality, not so different from Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, or Ayrton Senna.

Last season was particularly turbulent for Max Verstappen. However, this wasn’t always due to the limited performance of his car. On multiple occasions, the Dutch world champion displayed particularly aggressive behavior on track against his rivals.

It had been a while since this version of Verstappen had appeared so frequently on track. It’s no coincidence that this happened in the first season since late 2021 in which the competition was fierce and equipped with tools capable of challenging him.

Naturally, this led many to voice negative opinions about the Red Bull driver, almost overshadowing the impressive work he did with an RB20 that, for much of the season, did not deserve to be where Verstappen managed to take it.

Among the harshest critiques was Jacques Villeneuve‘s statement earlier this week: “Take Verstappen out of Formula 1. No one cares. Take Hamilton out of Formula 1, and people care.”

In response to the criticism aimed at Max Verstappen, Christian Horner remarked, “He’s more sensitive than people think. Inevitably, he’s aware of the criticism, and some of it, I think, is really unfounded.”

Christian Horner also compared Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton and other great drivers of the past: “He’s an aggressive driver. He’s an attacking driver. But so were Senna, Schumacher, and Hamilton—and all of them faced the same kind of scrutiny at various points in their careers.”